Reaching for Stars: 740+ “Lighthouse of Universe” Discovered by World’s Largest Single Dish Telescope
Pulsars are dense and bright remnants of massive stars that have gone supernova, hence they are dubbed the “lighthouse of the universe” and are a hot topic in astronomic research.
Now scientists from different countries continue to study pulsars, 56 years after their chance discovery. For example, “the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world’s largest single dish telescope, has discovered over 740 pulsars,” said Jiang Peng, chief engineer of the telescope and a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), while being interviewed in Beijing on March 7.
FAST is a one-of-a-kind telescope that required breakthroughs in numerous fields, from materials science to system calibrations, Jiang added.
Today scientists know over 2,000 pulsars, NASA said. These rotating “lighthouse” neutron stars begin their lives as stars between about 7 to 20 times the mass of the Sun.
